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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27002188">Promise is a Big Word</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kellyscams/pseuds/Kellyscams'>Kellyscams</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumpness [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Actor RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood Drinking, Blood and Injury, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Abuse, not on screen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:49:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,415</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27002188</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kellyscams/pseuds/Kellyscams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris knows it’s a trap. But he’s willing to step right into it for Sebastian. Even if that means coming face to face with a vampire.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chris Evans/Sebastian Stan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumpness [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954231</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Promise is a Big Word</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt:</p>
<p>
  <strong>No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD</strong>
</p>
<p>“Take Me Instead” | “Run!” | <strike>Ritual Sacrifice</strike></p>
<p>
  <strike>
    <strong></strong>
  </strike>
  <strong>No 10. THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED</strong>
</p>
<p>Blood Loss | <strike>Internal Bleeding</strike> | Trail of Blood</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a trap.</p>
<p>Chris knows this. </p>
<p>He knows a lot of things now. </p>
<p>He knows that he and Sebastian didn’t meet by chance. Sebastian came into Chris’s bakery four months ago because he was sent there, not because he was looking to satisfy his sweet-tooth. </p>
<p>He knows that Sebastian deceived him. Those first weeks of batting eyelashes and nibbled lips and sweet shyness had been a lie. </p>
<p>He knows that he’s not the first human that Sebastian’s tried to trick. If things went according to plan, Chris probably would have been one that he succeeded with. </p>
<p>Chris knows all of this and he’ll still walk into this trap because these past four months have been some of the most wonderful of his life. Because Sebastian, at great personal risk, admitted the truth. Because Chris Evans loves Sebastian Stan with all his heart. </p>
<p>Sebastian left Chris in order to keep him safe from the coven. For a vampire’s familiar to break their most solemn rule is the ultimate betrayal. </p>
<p>“If they find out that I told you,” Sebastian tearfully explained, “they’ll kill you. I could never forgive myself.”</p>
<p>Chris tried to argue. </p>
<p>“I don’t care, Seb.” Chris pet a hand over that soft hair. Sebastian’s eyes had fallen closed the second he touched him. “I just want you. We can figure something out.”</p>
<p>“I’d forgotten,” Sebastian said, “what real love looked like. The way my parents looked at one another. Thank you, Chris, for giving that back to me.” He took Chris’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “It isn’t safe. And I won’t risk you getting hurt. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything.”</p>
<p>He left then, vanishing from Chris’s life as mysteriously and quickly as he’d come into it. </p>
<p>That had been five days ago. </p>
<p>Since then, Sebastian’s number has been disconnected and his apartment is empty and he’s left his job at the library. He was just…<em>gone</em>. And Chris, heartbroken as he was, could do nothing but accept that.</p>
<p>Until today.</p>
<p>When Chris received a text from a blocked number that made his blood run cold. A text with several images. All Sebastian. Sebastian tied to a chair and beaten to a pulp. With it was a simple but vicious message.</p>
<p>
  <em>Familiars can take a lot of damage and I don’t plan on killing him.</em>
</p>
<p>Seconds later, he got an address and a time, and Chris could only assume that meant they wanted him to go there. </p>
<p>Chris didn’t even hesitate. He threw on his shoes and jacket, grabbed his keys, and drove to the address. </p>
<p>It’s a church out in the middle of nowhere. Abandoned. There’s a little overgrown cemetery in the churchyard. They probably picked this place for the dramatic irony. Some of the myths are true, Sebastian’s told him. They are faster and stronger than humans, but not so much that someone trained in such matters can’t kill them. Sunlight won’t kill vampires, but it does hurt them. Garlic and iron deter them. A wooden stake or silver bullet through the heart will kill them. They don’t, however, have an aversion to religious artifacts. </p>
<p>Now that Chris is here, a chill washes over his body. Nothing is going to stop him from going in there, but he wonders if he stands a chance at succeeding. Apparently, there are secret groups of hunters who do train for this sort of thing. They keep the rest of the world safe from the tales who lurk in the shadows. Chris, however, is not part of one. He has no idea he’s walking into.</p>
<p>When Sebastian first told Chris the truth, Chris didn’t believe him. This hadn’t surprised Sebastian. Most people don’t believe in vampires nowadays. They really didn’t two hundred years ago when Sebastian learned about them either. </p>
<p>Back then, from what he’s told Chris, Sebastian had been living in the Romanian countryside with his mother and stepfather. </p>
<p>“I’m just a horrible cliché,” Sebastian had said. “I know it.” </p>
<p>He’d led a quiet, peaceful life. Just like he does now, Sebastian enjoyed reading and watching the stars and learning. He worked hard. Took care of his family. He was as he is now. Sweet-natured and kind-hearted, with a desire to be useful and helpful. </p>
<p>There’d only been one problem.</p>
<p>Sebastian had made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong person. </p>
<p>
Two of them.</p>
<p>He’d met Darius in the market, by chance, Sebastian thought, and the two hit it off immediately. Just like he and Chris had.</p>
<p>“I was completely smitten by him,” he’d told Chris. “I thought it was real.”</p>
<p>Which was entirely the point. But Darius hadn’t meant any of it. He was the coven’s familiar at the time and used Sebastian’s love to trick him into taking his place. </p>
<p>“The agreement needs to be entered consensually,” Sebastian explained. “I didn’t understand what I was agreeing to. I thought we were declaring our love for one another. As soon as I consented, Darius laughed, and it sounded so cruel and I couldn’t imagine why it made my stomach turn.” Sebastian huffed a humorless laugh. “Of course, I found out after he spun around and just walked away, leaving me in the middle of the woods. Alone, I thought, but I wasn’t. Silas appeared behind me and claimed me as his familiar.” </p>
<p>The only way to break the contract is for his vampire to release him or for him to find a replacement. Which is why he struck up a relationship with Chris. Just as he’s done to other people in the past.</p>
<p>“For a long time after that, I thought I loved Silas. He…<em>warped</em> everything.” Sebastian sighed with a shake of his head. “He’d sent Darius to me. Silas told me he’d chosen me after <em>Darius</em> had wanted out of their contract when really it’d been Silas who grew bored of him. But I believed the lie for so long. That this beautiful, sophisticated immortal picked <em>me</em> of all people to be <em>his</em> familiar because he thought I was special. That he loved me.”</p>
<p>Silas had taken care of Sebastian. Or made him think so, anyway. He lavished him in spoils and riches. Gave him attention and affection. Let him have whatever he wanted.</p>
<p>“I was quite devoted to him. He could get me to do anything for him. But…” Sebastian wiped his eyes and chuckled darkly. “When I did something wrong…he acted as though I’d done it on purpose. The first time it happened, I had just been talking to another vampire in the coven and he made it out as though a simple conversation with someone else was some sort of betrayal. Like, I was doing something behind his back. He called me all sorts of horrible names and then left and didn’t come back for a month, and when he did, he acted as though it’d never happened. Silas said that he couldn’t stand the thought of me with anyone else and it made him act crazy.”</p>
<p>Whenever Sebastian talked about the past, he let Chris hold him. Chris never knew if that was to let Chris feel useful or if he simply craved the affection. He had a feeling it was a little of both.</p>
<p>“He said all that, but he still shared me with other vampires. Important ones. Coven leaders and their sergeants.” Chris wrapped his arms tighter around him when Sebastian trembled.  Sebastian’s chin trembled. “Afterward, though, he’d insult and berate me, but I’d still do it because I just wanted to please him.” His voice cracked when he said, “After a few decades he grew bored of me and made me look for people to be my replacement. And as much as it hurt, as much as I begged him to keep me, I did it for him. I <em>still</em> wanted to please him even by finding someone to replace me.”</p>
<p>That’s how Sebastian found Chris. He’d been looking for someone to replace him as Silas’s familiar. </p>
<p>And Silas wants Chris.</p>
<p>Or did, anyway. </p>
<p>Now that Sebastian’s told Chris everything, Chris is pretty sure Silas just wants him dead. </p>
<p>As a familiar, Sebastian hasn’t aged. He doesn’t possess the same attributes as a vampire, but he has some of their powers and none of their weaknesses. He’s stronger than a typical human and more resilient, but his heart still beats and he can bleed and he can hurt, and Chris has no doubt that Silas will continue to make him bleed just to punish him for his insolence. Chris can’t let that happen. He won’t. </p>
<p>Chris glances out at the church again before taking a deep breath and getting out of the car. He marches straight to the building without even pausing and when he reaches the doors, he shoves them open. </p>
<p>It’s dark. The entire place is lit only by candlelight, little flames flickering and throwing dancing shadows on the walls and floor. Most of the pews are gone and those that remain are broken or overturned. The stained glass windows are all broken; not completely, not all of them, but the glass is shattered. Beer cans and empty bottles and discarded cups are scattered around the place. The walls are graffitied. Looks like this is a popular party spot for the local kids. </p>
<p>There’s something on the floor. Something that Chris can tell doesn’t belong, but he can’t tell what it is. A smudge of some sort. It runs all the way up the aisle.</p>
<p>He pulls out his phone, turns the flashlight on, and nearly drops it when he realizes what he’s looking at. Blood. There’s a trail of blood that leads all the way up to the crumbling altar.  </p>
<p>Hand trembling and throat painfully dry, Chris follows it. When he’s almost there, Chris lifts the light away from the blood and points it at the altar. Only he sees nothing. A few overturned chairs and a cracked marble basin. No Sebastian. </p>
<p>Chris hears a noise behind him. He gasps and spins around to see no one. But he does notice something he hadn’t before. The confessional booth. </p>
<p>If the vampires are here, they no doubt know that Chris has arrived as well but he still tries to be as quiet as possible as he makes his way over there. The booth is kept private by a thick, velvet curtain. It’s torn in places and even singed a bit at the bottom, but otherwise still intact. Enough, anyway, to cover the entrance of the confessional booth. </p>
<p>Once Chris is close enough, he clenches one side of the curtain, tries to brace himself for what might be behind it, and then flings it aside. </p>
<p>“Seb!” he exclaims when he sees Sebastian hidden away in there, still bound to a chair. “Oh my god.”</p>
<p>Chris’s heart falls. Not only are Sebastian’s legs and arms tied to a chair, he’s gagged and appears to be unconscious. His head hangs limp and he hasn’t stirred at all. Blood is smeared around his nose and chin. Dripping in perspiration, Sebastian’s incredibly pale, and his breathing is labored. Both eyes are black and blue, his face swollen. There are bite marks not only on his neck but up and down his arms as well. They’ve been feeding from him. </p>
<p>Torn between calling for help -- possibly leading more humans to slaughter by doing so  -- and scooping Sebastian into his arms to make a run for it, Chris drops to his knees at Sebastian’s side and immediately checks his pulse. It’s weak, but there. He gently slips his hand under Sebastian’s chin and lifts. This produces a painful groan and frightened whimper. His skin is cold and clammy. He wants to untie him. Wants to remove that gag. He doesn’t know what to do first and doesn’t want to cause him any more pain. </p>
<p>“Seb…” Chris whispers and taps his fingers against his cheek. “Sebastian, c’mon, open your eyes for me.” </p>
<p>Another soft sound makes its way through the gag. The white cloth between his teeth is stained red, bloody drool leaking through it.</p>
<p>“Baby, please.” Chris needs to fight back the tears that burn his eyes. “Please, open your eyes.”</p>
<p>Eyes scrunching, another groan rumbles in Sebastian’s throat before he actually manages to lift his chin out of Chris’s palm. He’s shivering now, as though his body has just realized it needs to. Those eyes slowly open and take a moment to uncross before he can focus on his environment. One of them is all red instead of white.</p>
<p>“Oh my god,” Chris breathes. “Seb. Seb, can you hear me?”</p>
<p>When Sebastian’s eyes finally land on Chris, they seem to take him in with awe and adoration. As if he simply cannot believe what he’s seeing. For a moment, it even looks like he might smile. Until it dawns on him where he is and the state he’s in and that Chris is <em>here</em>. </p>
<p>Sebastian’s eyes grow wide with fear, then, and he shakes his head and mumbles something that Chris can’t understand. </p>
<p>“H-hang on, baby,” Chris murmurs. “Lemme get this off of you.”</p>
<p>Trembling hands make heavy work of untying the knot behind Sebastian’s head, but after fumbling with it for a bit, Chris finally gets it and gently removes the gag. Once it’s out, Sebastian coughs and spits out more blood. At his side again, Chris uses the end of his sleeve to wipe Sebastian’s mouth clean. He tries to be gentle, but he must hurt him since Sebastian winces and whimpers.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Chris says as he next attempts to loosen the restraints at Sebastian’s wrists. “Seb, I’m gonna get you out of--”</p>
<p>“What the fuck,” Sebastian growls, weakly but with enough venom it freezes Chris’s heart, “are you doing here, Chris?” </p>
<p>Sebastian’s never looked at him like this before. Cold and hateful. As though he despises Chris with every breath in his body. </p>
<p>“I…” Chris's throat swells. “I came to help--”</p>
<p>“Don’t you <em>get it</em>?” Sebastian snaps. “It was all <em>fake</em>. I don’t give a shit about you.” </p>
<p>“You don’t mean that,” Chris replies. “I know you don’t.”</p>
<p>“You don’t know <em>anything</em>.” He spits at the ground in front of Chris. “Truth is, I still love Silas. Y-you…you’re <em>nothing</em> compared to him.” </p>
<p>Despite the bite to his words, they don’t sink into Chris’s heart. Sebastian doesn’t mean it. Tears slip from his swollen eyes. His breaths collide, one after the next. He’s trembling from head to toe. And he won’t look at Chris. </p>
<p>“Tell me you don’t love me,” Chris says. “And I’ll leave.”</p>
<p>Sebastian’s hard expression falters. He looks away from Chris, lip quivering. </p>
<p>"I don't love you," he whispers, with barely enough volume to be understood. </p>
<p>"Sebastian," Chris says, putting steel into his voice. "If you mean that, look me in the eye and say it."</p>
<p>This time, Sebastian’s entire face crumples in pain. A different kind of pain, but pain nonetheless. He chokes on a sob, his entire chest trembling with it.</p>
<p>“Please, don’t do this.”</p>
<p>“I have to,” Chris answers as he tries again to work the tight knots out of the ropes. “I love you.” </p>
<p>“Chris, <em>please</em>.” Sebastian’s voice wobbles off key. “You--” </p>
<p>He cuts himself off so abruptly, and with a gasp at that, that Chris looks up from what he’s doing to see that Sebastian’s eyes are wide, his pupils dilated, and while normally that seashore color of his eyes would draw Chris in, right now all he sees is Sebastian’s terror in them. Chris looks over his shoulder to where Sebastian’s gaze has landed but sees nothing. He glances to Sebastian again. </p>
<p>“What? What is it?”</p>
<p>“Chris,” Sebastian whispers, hushed but hurried. “You have to go. Right now.”</p>
<p>“Seb--”</p>
<p>“Run!” he shouts. “Run, Chris! Run!”</p>
<p>Before Chris’s mind can even form a response to that -- whether to listen to Sebastian’s advice or to ignore it -- someone knots fingers through his hair and yanks him away from the chair. Chris lands with a <em>thunk</em> against one of the crooked pews, his head knocking on the thick wood. It’s disorienting, and somewhere beyond the ringing of his ears, Chris can hear Sebastian’s voice. </p>
<p>“Seb…” Chris tries to answer. “I’m…”</p>
<p>Chris can’t finish that. Something wraps around his throat and quite literally steals the breath right from his lungs. He’s hurled back up, but not to his feet. No, Chris is hoisted in the air, and as he claws uselessly at the fingers around his neck, he somehow realizes that this is Silas. </p>
<p>They’re about the same height, but Chris definitely has more muscle tone, and yet Silas has him held up above his head as though he weighs nothing. His grip has loosened just enough to let Chris breath. Barely. </p>
<p>“Silas, please,” Sebastian cries. “Let him go. I’m sorry. You don’t have to do this. I learned my lesson.”</p>
<p>“Shut up, Sebastian,” Silas growls. “You do nothing right, do you? You can’t even be a good hostage. You know, I ought to turn him. Right here in front of you. And once he awakens reborn into something far superior than this pathetic shell I hold, he won’t be able to control his thirst. Not with the sweet scent of your blood right in front of him. Perhaps you <em>do</em> have further use after all.” </p>
<p>“No,” Sebastian pleads on Chris’s behalf. “Just let him go. I’ll find you someone, I promise; just, please, not him. Please.”</p>
<p>Instead of answering Sebastian’s pleas, Silas turns those blood-red eyes on Chris. If he wasn’t currently holding him by the throat, feet dangling and breaths backing up, Chris might find him attractive. Long black hair tied into a loose braid behind his head. Deep widow’s peak. Long, angular features.</p>
<p>“How would you like that, human?” Silas says to Chris now. “Would you like me to turn you and allow you to feast upon your lover?”</p>
<p>“<em>Fuck you</em>,” Chris manages to grunt through clenched teeth, and if he could, he’d probably add a kick for good measure. </p>
<p>His response only makes Silas laugh. To him, Chris is probably no more threatening than a fly and just as irritating. </p>
<p>“Or better yet.” His eyes fill with vulgar intrigue. “Why don’t I turn <em>you</em>, Sebastian?” Silas sneers, still looking at Chris. “You’ve requested it in the past. I could acquiesce now. I can even serve you your first meal.”</p>
<p>“No.” Sebastian sounds horrified. And by the quiver in his voice, Chris assumes that the threat holds some very real merit. “Please. Silas, I’ll do anything you want.”</p>
<p>Taking another long, hard look at Chris, Silas shifts his gaze back to Sebastian again. The corner of his mouth lifts in a horrendously charming smirk. </p>
<p>“That would certainly teach you a lesson,” he murmurs, “would it not?” </p>
<p>Rather than answer that directly, Sebastian struggles against the restraints so hard that he moves the chair. He glares at Silas, eyes hard and lip curled over his teeth.</p>
<p>“I’ve given you <em>everything</em>!” he yells through his teeth. “I’ve devoted my <em>life</em> to you! Just give me this <em>one</em> thing! Just leave him alone or--”</p>
<p>“Or you’ll <em>what</em>, Sebastian?” Silas releases Chris and lets him drop to the floor, leaving him to cough and gasp for air as it rushes back into his body. “What, precisely, will you do?” He’s ended up behind Sebastian with Sebastian’s face captured between his hands. Silas forces his head this way and that. “Have you thought your threat through well?”</p>
<p>“You can’t kill me,” Sebastian replies, defiant and even smug. “Vampires can’t kill their familiars.”</p>
<p>“You are right,” Silas says, slapping a hand over both Sebastian’s mouth and nose, “they cannot. However, my love, you’d be horribly surprised by how much a familiar can live through.” </p>
<p>Still on the floor, Chris pushes himself up to shaky elbows. The skin around his throat and neck is bruised and tender to the touch. He knows there’s nothing he can do to physically stop Silas from hurting Sebastian, so when his mouth opens wide and he moves to bite Sebastian’s neck, Chris does the only thing he can think to do.</p>
<p>“Take me!” he shouts, reaching out as though he can somehow stop Silas that way. </p>
<p>His words, though, they do have the desired effect. Mouth right at Sebastian’s neck, Silas flicks his gaze to Chris.  </p>
<p>“What did you say?”</p>
<p>“You wanted me, right? As your familiar?” Chris says. “Take me instead.”</p>
<p>Hands still on Sebastian’s face, keeping silent but most definitely not still since Sebastian is thrashing against his powerful hold, Silas leers at Chris and sniggers. </p>
<p>“You wish to be mine, then?”</p>
<p>“No.” Chris shakes his head, pushing himself back to his feet. He teeters a bit before remaining upright, the blood and oxygen rushing from to his head too quickly. “Of course, not. I’ll do it anyway. I will consent to being your familiar. But I have a few conditions of my own.” </p>
<p>“Interesting,” Silas replies. “Go on, Christopher. Tell me your conditions.”</p>
<p>“First, you don’t ever touch Sebastian again. You don’t hurt him, in <em>any way</em>. You don’t even think about him.”</p>
<p>A twitch of a smile. Then, “Anything else?” </p>
<p>“You don’t take me away from my family,” Chris says. “Or Sebsastian, if he chooses to stay with me.”</p>
<p>In the chair, still with Silas’s hand covering half his face, Sebastian struggles against the hold and is yelling things behind the palm over his mouth. Objecting, probably, to what Chris is trying to do. </p>
<p>“Is that all?”</p>
<p>“I won’t hurt anyone,” Chris tells him. “I’ll do whatever you need of me, but I will not hurt anyone. If you can agree to that, then I’ll be your familiar.” </p>
<p>“<em>Done</em>.”</p>
<p>Silas roughly releases his tight grip on Sebastian and glides over to stand in front of Chris. Though Chris’s view of Sebastian is now obstructed, he can hear the harsh intake of breath now that he can breathe again. </p>
<p>“Chris…” Sebastian gasps for more air. “Don’t…you don’t…know what you’re doing. Don’t do this.” </p>
<p>Chris would love to answer him and tell him not to worry. That everything will be okay. But he can’t seem to speak. Not until Silas has him repeat the ritualistic words that will tie him to Silas until the bond is severed. The same words Sebastian had been tricked into saying. And a few additional words to accommodate Chris’s conditions. </p>
<p>A strange, powerful sensation washes over Chris the second he finishes reciting the words. The air feels different, like silk against his skin. Chris can see things, hear things, that he couldn’t earlier. And he feels an unusual pull to Silas. Like gravity has shifted and now draws him to the vampire. </p>
<p>“This should be interesting.” Silas slips a hand, cold but surprisingly soft, to Chris’s cheek. The touch is gentle, and strangely enough, Chris hasn’t recoiled. He doesn't know why. “You might want to untie him now. I’ll be seeing you.” </p>
<p>Gaze following Silas as he leaves the church, disappearing from the doorway in the blink of an eye, Chris is overwhelmed with the oddest emotion. Loneliness. Chris feels lonely without Silas and has a strange desire to go after him. To be near him to quell this emotion. </p>
<p>“Chris. Chris, look at me.” </p>
<p>Dazed and slightly confused, Chris looks for the source of that sweet, soft voice. Sebastian is still there, still tied to that chair. Somewhere in the back of Chris’s mind, he’s aware of what he came here to do. He should untie Sebastian. He loves Sebastian. He loves him so much and while these new feelings don’t exactly eclipse that, Chris is having trouble reconciling the two. </p>
<p>“Sebastian…”</p>
<p>Chris slowly walks back over to him, dropping to his knees by his side and finally manages to untie the knots. As soon as his limbs are free, Sebastian throws his arms around him. He cradles the back of Chris’s head and just holds him close.</p>
<p>“Chris,” he says. “You’re all right. You’re gonna be okay. I’m gonna help you through this.”</p>
<p>“He…he left me.” Chris’s voice cracks. He doesn’t know why he’s so sad. Why he feels abandoned. He feels nothing for Silas but contempt and yet he hates that he’s been left behind. “He left me.”</p>
<p>“Look at me.” Sebastian readjusts their positions so they can look at each other. “It’s not real. I know it’s intense, what you’re feeling right now, but it’s not real. It’s just from the newly formed bond. It will fade, I promise.”</p>
<p>Looking into Sebastian’s eyes makes things a little clearer. No, Chris doesn’t really care about Silas. He’s here for Sebastian. That’s what matters. </p>
<p>“You’re hurt.”</p>
<p>Sebastian’s mouth tugs itself into the briefest of smiles. Chris missed that smile. It may’ve been only a few days since he last saw it, but he missed it.</p>
<p>“I’ll be all right,” he assures Chris. “It’ll take some time for my connection to Silas to fade as it goes into you.” That smile falls and his face twists. “Why did you do that, Chris? <em>Why</em>?”</p>
<p>Fingers touching Sebastian’s cheek, Chris wipes a few tears away. There’s really only one answer to that. </p>
<p>“Because I love you,” he says. “I love you so much. I couldn’t let him hurt you anymore.” Something hurts in Chris’s chest. Something that has nothing to do with Silas. “You didn’t mean it, did you?”</p>
<p>“Mean what?”</p>
<p>“That you didn’t love me.”</p>
<p>Sebastian smothers down a sob. He shakes his head, holds Chris face between his hands, and plants a wet kiss. </p>
<p>“No. No, of course not. I love you, Chris. I love you so much.” Sebastian rests his brow against Chris’s. “You’re going to be okay. I’m going to help you. I’ll get you out of this, Chris. I promise.”</p>
<p>“Not…not by hurting anyone,” Chris says. “I don’t want anyone else to be hurt.”</p>
<p>Shaking his head, Sebastian sniffles and wipes at his face. “No. Other than Silas, maybe.”</p>
<p>Chris grins at this. Though there’s a part of him that rejects the idea of anything bad happening to Silas, it’s drowned out by the desire to keep Sebastian and his family and everyone else safe. Even if that means finding someone to kill Silas. </p>
<p>“Sebastian, we have to get you home,” Chris says. “I need to clean you up. Will you let me look after you?”</p>
<p>“Yes, Chris. As long as you promise to let me do the same.”</p>
<p>And that’s one promise that Chris never intends to break.  </p>
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